I really DON’T have my dining table decorated like this every day but love to do something a little special for Christmas. This tablescape is full of frosty green garland and DIY wooden star place cards.

A Bathroom Renovation! One Room Challenge: Week 1

Alright, so I know that we’re totally crazy. But we’re taking on yet another renovation before this baby arrives (in about as much time). We’re excited to be taking on our one and only bathroom for our first time participating in the One Room Challenge as a guest! If you’re not familiar with the ORC, it’s basically a group challenge to renovate or makeover a room in six weeks- giving an update every week. I’m not sure how well you know me… or how well you do math… but we also have about 6 and a half weeks until our fourth baby is due. So we’re totally on the clock for this one.

Want to see what we have planned?

I’m so darn excited! We’re going classic greys with lots of marble and modern shapes in the sconces and hexagon tiles.

So a bit of background before I get into all the details. If you’ve been following along for a while, you might remember that we’ve been renovating this bathroom in stages. Why? Well… we had planned to just give it a good coat of paint and wait to do the whole thing BUT after moving in for a few months… it was clear our tub was a disaster. It poured water into the basement each use- even after having a plumber in to replace all the plumbing he could reach. We had to tear it out. Here is the total ‘before’ photo of the space… when we moved in 3 and a half years ago.

A 1960s dream, right? Notice in that photo of the shower, Shane’s shoulder is pretty much level with the shower head.

So we painted everything that was pink to a grey or white and added some new hardware on the vanity. We also swapped out the light for one that wasn’t broken and we replaced the window (along with every other window in the house), trim, baseboards and door (we did this throughout the house before moving in).

Then… because of the leak, a few months later we ripped out the shower/tub because we had to and put in a new tub and tile combo… on a budget. We used leftover kitchen floor tiles for the surround and added a marble hexagon accent strip (leftover kitchen backsplash). We laid down leftover basement floating vinyl flooring to cover the subfloor until we could finish the renovation and added a couple shelves above the toilet. Here’s what the rest of the space looks like right now.

It’s a small bathroom… but it’s our only one. Which is one of the challenges with this space! The other challenge is that doing this renovation in stages has left us with a shower we love but we can’t get the main tile anymore. So to ‘match’ we’re limited to the marble hexagons. It’s a good thing that they’re also my favourite tile out there ;)

So what are we planning to do this time around? Here’s the list:

Remove vanity and medicine cabinet, plumb for two sinks and re-drywall

Replace built in vanity with footed double vanity

Replace single light with three sconces

Paint

Replace toilet

Replace floating shelves with *something* custom

Tile the floor

Decorate

It’s not that crazy for six weeks… is it? Ha!

Now onto the fun things… all the pieces we’ve chosen! To be prepared for the tight timeline, we’ve already picked pretty much everything for this bathroom. I’m so excited to be partnering with Home Depot Canada and American Standard for this bathroom! The marble hexagon tile in the shower is actually Home Depot tile, so we are planning on carrying that through on the floor with matching grout (Delorian Gray). We are deciding whether to size up the hexagons from 1.5″ to 2″… I’m leaning towards the bigger ones right now- what do you think? Oh! And weigh in… heated floors… yes or no? We don’t plan to stay in this house forever so are trying to decided if that’s a selling feature or more of a ‘nice to have’ feature.

The vanity is a HUGE PIECE. I feel like that is the biggest decision we have made (or will have to make). Since we only have one bathroom (and almost 4 kids), we really wanted to have the two sinks for teeth brushing, hand washing, and everything else but we also wanted to have great storage. We settled on this Avanity Brooks double vanity from Home Depot Canada and I can’t wait for it to arrive next week! I really love that this vanity has a marble counter that plays so nicely with the floors, two sinks (yessss), and drawers instead of cupboards. I am also crazy about the open bottom/feet. I am hoping this will make the space feel so much larger. A couple baskets with toilet paper and maybe some folded towels and it will be great for storage as well as beautiful.

The one thing about this vanity is that it has holes for widespread faucets… which are gorgeous but there aren’t nearly as many to choose from! Most are really traditional in style. We were excited to find these Serin High Arc widespread faucets from American Standard and I’m so in love with the modern feel of them. I am excited to counter the marble and classic greys we have everywhere with some more modern touches.

We’ll be using two mirrors and three sconces for a more modern feel as well. I am in LOVE with these sconces from the Progress Lighting Mod Collection. I’ve ordered them from Home Depot Canada online and am *notsopatiently* waiting for them to arrive. I really love the chrome and the globes. They remind me of our dining room light and I love how they play with the chrome faucets.

The mirrors I had chosen… I loved. BUT they’ve since discontinued! I was heartbroken (look at those curves!), but found some affordable alternatives when I was out shopping last week. They’re simple rectangles with a thin black metal frame. I love that the black metal frame adds some contrast into the space- I’m thinking I’ll add black hooks for towels to carry that through.

The toilet will also be replaced- which I couldn’t be more excited about. It’s actually been broken since we moved in and we knew we would be replacing it so haven’t bothered fixing it. For three and a half years. I’m not only excited to have a completely functional toilet, but the American Standard Cadet one we chose from Home Depot Canada is modern and the lines are so clean. Aaaaand lastly, above the toilet, I am hoping to replace these shelves we put up with the $2 Ikea brackets with something more custom. Like chunky white floating shelves. I’m trying to talk my Dad into helping build those- I’ll let you know how it goes ;)

I’ve also started to think decor and without making this post WAY crazy long… I’m thinking a fun hand lettered sign with hooks to replace the rustic one we have there now, a hanging plant or two (if Shane lets me!), and possibly switching out that shower curtain for something a little more playful and lighthearted.

Comments

So, first of all, HI Colleen!!! It’s been so long!!! I hope all is wonderful with you. Secondly, um, why would you want to get rid of the pink fuzzy toilet?! I totally don’t see a problem there. Lol. This is going to be gorgeous! I love it all. And we’re in the bathroom makeover club together! Sounds like we’ve both been waiting years for the day. :) I am doing the hex tile too, in the 2″. I had planned on the 1″ for the longest time…wanted to at least get the sample of the 2 to make sure I wasn’t missing out, and when it first came I hated the larger size. But then, after looking at it for a week, and then especially when I looked at them side by side, it just seemed to fit better! So…I don’t think there’s much good advice in that rambling statement…but at least you have a friend who knows the struggle is real. :) Can’t wait to see how all of this unfolds! xx- Laura

We almost used that same vanity in our bathroom remodel we just completed. Only reason why we didn’t was that we needed to sore the cleaning supplies under the sink- was sure if there was enough room. Very excited to see it in your space though!

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